Every day we wake up, drink a cup of coffee, and get ready for work. Following are a handful of stories from around the tech world condensed to fit into a single cup of coffee. These are the things you need to know before you step foot out of your door (or in front of a webcam) and into the real world this morning.
So sit back, grab a cup, and start your morning off right with a few “Quick Bytes” from Innovation & Tech Today.
Microsoft Will Stop Selling Windows 10
Beginning next week, Microsoft will discontinue sales of its iconic Windows 10 operating system.
“January 31, 2023 will be the last day this Windows 10 download is offered for sale,” Microsoft announced on its product page, which also stated Redmond’s intention to continue support for the OS for another 32 months, “Windows 10 will remain supported with security updates that help protect your PC from viruses, spyware, and other malware until October 14, 2025.”
Debuting in 2015 as Microsoft’s response to Apple’s growing market share, Windows 10 will fittingly end its run after a decade. Windows 10 users with compatible computers can upgrade to Windows 11 for free and the download site will even check your computer’s compatibility.
If your PC will no longer be compatible with a supported Microsoft OS, you can always extend it’s life with a free install of Linux.
Google Alphabet Layoffs
With a likely recession being forecast for 2023, even the resilient tech sector is bracing for a downturn. After a period of rapid hiring in spite of the COVID-19 panic, the industry is slashing costs and laying off workers.
Google’s corporate parent, Alphabet, announced its move to cut 12,000 jobs, notifying affected workers by email. CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post that areas targeted for downsizing will include recruiting, corporate management, engineering and product development.
“Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today,” he said.
The cuts will put six percent of Google’s workers out of a job at a time when other tech giants, including Amazon, Microsoft and Meta are also shedding much of their workforce.
With the rapid development and implementation of artificial intelligence, it’s uncertain how many of these jobs will ever return.
Twitter turns off APIs
Apparently not satisfied with the heat he’s been taking since his acquisition and reengineering of Twitter, Elon Musk decided to shut down the API’s (application program interface) of several popular third-party Twitter clients, including Twitterific, Tapbots and Tweetbot.
Twitter made the move without warning or explanation, leaving developers and users alike frustrated and angry.
“We have a large number of sub. renewals for year 3 of Tweetbot coming up in a couple of weeks. If we’re permanently cut off I need to know so we can remove the app from sale and prevent those. Which obviously I’d rather not do.” Tweetbot co-creator Paul Haddad posted Sunday on Mastodon.
The suspension appears to be purposeful rather than a malfunction, with one senior software engineer at Twitter posting on an internal Slack message: “Third-party app suspensions are intentional.”, according to The Information.
But it’s unclear whether Twitter intended to block all third-party API’s or just selected ones. As of this writing, several Twitter clients, including Tweet Delete, Albatross and Fenix, still function normally.
Prime Tops Netflix as Top Streamer
With the proliferation of streaming services in the last few years, the once mighty Netflix has been toppled from its perch as the industry leader. During the fourth quarter of 2022, Prime Video edged out the pioneering giant in streaming subscribers, 21 to 20%.
The streaming space it once dominated has become an increasingly cutthroat competition, with Netflix losing subscribers and seeing its stock drop by 10% last year. In addition to Prime Video, Disney, HOB Max, Hulu, Apple TV and Paramount+, have all cut into Netflix market share.
A bright spot for Netflix this year is Tim Burton’s coming-of-age, horror comedy, Wednesday, based on the Addams Family franchise, which became its second most watched series ever, with more than 50 million views.
As movie studios, like Paramount and Disney, continue to ramp up offerings on their own streaming platforms, and streaming services, like Netflix and Prime, produce their own big budget movies, the competition for subscribers shows no signs of cooling off.
Boston Dynamics Shows Off Latest Atlas Robot
As their robots become more intelligent and capable, Boston Dynamics likes to remind us that we have nothing to fear. This will never be anything like Terminator, they insist. The problem is, its starting to look more and more like a Terminator.
